Forum for Science, Industry and Business

News from Stardust

17.03.2010

Goethe University Frankfurt helps to identify the promising interstellar candidate

As reported in last week's Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston, two most promising candidates for stardust have been identified. They were collected during NASA´s Stardust mission that probed the interstellar stream during 15 months.

Since 2006 not only scientists but also amateurs worldwide are scanning samples for the proverbial needle in the haystack: dust particles from others parts of our galaxy that were carried to our solar system via the interstellar stream. Several tons of matter will be transferred through our solar system each year. Geoscientists of Frankfurt's Goethe-University helped to identify the chemical structure of the particles.

Particle No. 30, now subdivided and named Orion and Sirius, were identified as the most likely interstellar candidates discovered to date. Part of this exiting research was performed by a team of researchers from the Goethe-University Frankfurt (Prof. Frank Brenker, Dr. Sylvia Schmitz) and the Gent University (Prof. Laszlo Vincze, Dr. Bart Vekemans, Dr. Tom Schoojans) at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility ESRF in Grenoble, France. Like in a huge X-ray microscope the structure and chemical composition of particles was analysed non-destructively.

After the successful preliminary analysis and exiting beamtime in Grenoble the sample went back to Berkeley for further studies. Although team leader Dr. Andrew Westphal (University of California, Berkeley) stressed that the discovery "could be a false alarm" he added: "So far this particle is unique... if we drop it on the floor, it will cost $300m to get another one." If future work on the particles will confirm their interstellar nature the ESRF would be the place where the first chemical data of a contemporary interstellar particle were ever collected.

For further details contact f.brenker@em.uni-frankfurt.de , laslo.vincze@ugent.be or see http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100303/full/news.2010.106.html and http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8550924.stm

For photographers and scientists, lenses are lifesavers. They reflect and refract light, making possible the imaging systems that drive discovery through the microscope and preserve history through cameras.

But today's glass-based lenses are bulky and resist miniaturization. Next-generation technologies, such as ultrathin cameras or tiny microscopes, require...

Scientists from the University of Zurich have succeeded for the first time in tracking individual stem cells and their neuronal progeny over months within the intact adult brain. This study sheds light on how new neurons are produced throughout life.

The generation of new nerve cells was once thought to taper off at the end of embryonic development. However, recent research has shown that the adult brain...

Let’s say the armrest is broken in your vintage car. As things stand, you would need a lot of luck and persistence to find the right spare part. But in the world of Industrie 4.0 and production with batch sizes of one, you can simply scan the armrest and print it out. This is made possible by the first ever 3D scanner capable of working autonomously and in real time. The autonomous scanning system will be on display at the Hannover Messe Preview on February 6 and at the Hannover Messe proper from April 23 to 27, 2018 (Hall 6, Booth A30).

Part of the charm of vintage cars is that they stopped making them long ago, so it is special when you do see one out on the roads. If something breaks or...